The art world can be a terribly stuffy and closed environment stifling the very essence of colourful self-expression that it seeks to celebrate.
So props must go to the Tate Liverpool for its very bright, simple and engaging 'The One That Spoke To Me' microsite where the public definitely comes first.

Produced in conjunction with London advertising agency Fallon and production company BT, the Tate Liverpool’s site allows visitors to provide insight on its collection – why Andy Warhol's ‘Marilyn Diptych’, Jackson Pollock's ‘Number 23’ or Picasso's ‘Weeping Woman’ “speak to them” – by submitting comments and choosing the emotions elicited by specific pieces.

Users can navigate via a simple quartet of controls – tell (submit comments while glancing at fragments of others’ thoughts), read (select from a bubble of intriguing keywords), watch (video testimonials with hilarious looped expressions and priceless comments “I despise electricity!”) and explore (slideshows of the art itself). The site could do with having more videos as these are often the most pleasurable elements and that kind of activity can be infectious. Perhaps visitors should be prompted to visit a Tate Liverpool video booth to have their say but, that minor quibble aside, it’s a commendable effort to bring art back to the people.

